Chapter 28 Return
Chapter 28 Return
Rain-Hidden Village.
Hanzo the Salamander stood at the highest point, coldly looking down at the alleyway below where black flames were burning.
He sensed it.
Even though they were several kilometers apart, the sudden burst of cold and violent chakra still made this battle-hardened "demigod" feel a slight unease.
He raised his hand, the scythe clanging crisply in his grasp, preparing to personally deal with the biting rats.
"Lord Hanzo! Something terrible has happened!"
A Rain Ninja communications soldier scrambled to the top of the tower, his voice trembling with fear:
"Urgent report from the front! Konoha has launched a full-scale offensive!"
"What?" Hanzo froze, turning around abruptly. "A full-scale attack? Has that brat Jiraiya gone mad? Launching a massive attack in this weather?"
"It's not just Jiraiya!" The communications officer handed over a blood-stained intelligence scroll.
"Orochimaru's forces have launched a surprise attack on the western defense line, and Tsunade's forces have even advanced directly to the central line! Konoha's forces are pressing forward across the entire front!"
Hanzo grabbed the scroll, his eyes turning incredibly sinister.
Logically, Konoha had just destroyed his armory, so they should have stopped while they were ahead and prepared for a counterattack.
This kind of all-out attack, regardless of cost and bordering on madness, is completely contrary to common sense.
unless……
Hanzo's gaze returned to the alleyway burning with black flames.
"I see."
Hanzo sneered and slowly lowered the kusarigama in his hand.
"Jiraiya, are you willing to gamble the entire front line to protect these few brats?"
"Lord Hanzo, the front lines are requesting reinforcements! Without you, we cannot hold off Konoha's forces!"
The communications ninja shouted anxiously.
Hanzo remained silent for a moment.
He took a deep look in the direction of that alleyway.
There was a force there that he felt threatened, and if he went there now, he was confident he could eliminate that threat.
But if that happened, the front lines of Amegakure would collapse, and the entire country would fall completely.
Hanzo clenched his fist, his knuckles turning white.
This is the tragedy of small countries; even if you are a demigod, you are too busy to be in two places at once.
In the face of great power rivalry, individual military force appears so insignificant.
"Pass on the order!"
Hanzo whirled around, his aura exploding like a tsunami, "All troops assemble! Follow me to battle!"
"As for those rats..."
Hanzo looked back one last time.
"Write down their intelligence and send it to the major powers."
"Especially that inextinguishable flame and the black skeletal giant."
A ruthless glint flashed in Hanzo's eyes, a cunning glint of intent to kill with a borrowed knife.
"With such power, even Konoha itself probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night."
......
Inside the alley, black flames still burned silently.
That was no ordinary fire; even the incessant torrential rains of the Land of Rain couldn't extinguish it.
Raindrops fell on the black flames, making a "sizzling" sound, and were instantly reduced to nothingness.
Fugaku Uchiha knelt in the mud, his hands tightly covering his right eye.
pain.
Excruciating pain.
It's as if someone is violently stirring behind your eyeball with a red-hot iron hook; the cost of that force is so direct and devastating.
"Is this... a kaleidoscope?"
Fugaku gasped for breath, crimson blood seeping from between his fingers. His vision blurred, but his perception of chakra remained terrifyingly sharp.
For a brief moment, he felt as if he had touched the legendary divine power of the Uchiha clan—Susanoo.
His absolute power, which materialized chakra and combined offense and defense, allowed him to easily crush an elite Jonin.
But at this moment, as his emotions calmed down, the black skull ribs slowly dissipated into the air like weathered rock, leaving only a lingering chill in the air.
"Ahem... Fugaku-senpai, your eyes..."
Nishikawa Tetsu clutched his chest and struggled to sit up. Looking at Fugaku's still-bleeding eyes, a storm raged within him.
Although Fugaku did indeed awaken the Kaleidoscope in the original work, the timing and nature of its awakening remain a mystery.
And now, because of my intervention, because of this near-death experience, these eyes have awakened ahead of schedule.
"Leave me alone..."
Fugaku gritted his teeth, forced himself to stand up, and said in a hoarse voice, "Let's check on Minato first."
Nishikawa Tetsu crawled to Minato's side, his palm glowing with a green light from the Palm Healing Technique, which he had learned from the medical ninjas recently.
"A penetrating shoulder wound, with severe damage to the meridians, but fortunately, it avoided the heart. As long as the bleeding is stopped in time, he won't die."
After dealing with the water gate, Nishikawa Tetsu turned to look at the alley entrance.
There, the once deserted streets began to see a flurry of people.
Strangely, most of them were civilians, with only a few genin.
A villager pointed in horror at the still-burning black flames in the alley and the corpse on the ground, which had been crushed into a pulp.
"That was Lord Hanzo's personal guard?! Completely wiped out?!"
Fear spread through the crowd, but even more so, there was shock.
In this secluded Amegakure village, they had never seen such a terrifying sight.
Although the black chakra skeleton had disappeared, the images left in their minds were enough to give them nightmares for the rest of their lives.
"Damn it, we've been seen."
Fugaku Uchiha's eyes narrowed, and killing intent surged into his heart once again.
Under normal circumstances, even with only three tomoe, he was confident he could kill all these people to silence them.
The secret of those eyes is too great; once it gets out, not only enemy countries, but even the high-ranking officials of Konoha will be watching him closely.
"Kill them..."
Fugaku tried to activate his pupil power again, but as soon as he focused, a tearing pain shot through his eye sockets, and his body went limp, almost causing him to kneel on the ground.
Chakra is depleted.
"Don't push yourself, senior!"
Nishikawa Tetsu grabbed Fugaku and supported him, his eyes frighteningly calm.
"We can't kill them all. The commotion here is too great; half of Amegakure saw that black skull. The information has already been leaked, so there's no point in silencing them now."
"What should we do then? What if the village finds out..." Fugaku gritted his teeth.
"Then let them know."
Nishikawa Tetsu interrupted him, speaking very quickly, "There's nothing wrong with having power itself; what's wrong is not having the status to match it. Now that you have these eyes, you actually have absolute leverage when you go back and negotiate with the higher-ups."
"But the prerequisite is that we have to get back alive."
Nishikawa Tetsu looked up at the distant sky.
There, a terrifying, suffocating chakra was erupting.
Strangely, that chakra was actually moving away.
He then learned the reason: a giant toad had appeared in the distance.
"Hanzo is gone."
Nishikawa Tetsu keenly sensed the disappearance of that oppressive feeling.
"It seems that Jiraiya-sama launched the attack to cover for us. This is our only chance."
He pulled out several high-explosive smoke grenades from his bag and hurled them at the group of Amegakure genin who were still hesitating whether to attack.
"boom!"
Thick smoke billowed out, instantly blocking out all visibility.
"Walk!"
Despite the excruciating pain, Fugaku carried the unconscious Minato on his back.
Nishikawa Tetsu was responsible for covering the rear, and he laid down a dense array of explosive tag traps along the way.
……
Two hours later.
Border of the Land of Rain, Konoha's rendezvous point.
When the three, covered in blood and with almost depleted chakra, stumbled out of the rainforest, the Konoha ninjas who were there to meet them barely recognized them.
"Who goes there?!"
"Fifth squad...return to the team."
After saying this, Fugaku Uchiha finally couldn't hold on any longer, his vision went black, and he collapsed forward.
But he did not fall to the ground.
A large, broad hand steadily supported him.
Jiraiya.
The Sannin, who had just finished commanding from the front lines and was covered in dust, looked at his three miserable subordinates and his eyes instantly reddened.
Minato was seriously injured and unconscious, Nishikawa Tetsu's chest was covered in blood, and Fugaku's eyes were swollen and swollen, with dried blood and tears remaining in the corners of his eyes.
"Good, well done!"
Jiraiya's voice was choked with emotion; he could imagine the hell these three children had endured.
"teacher……"
Nishikawa Tetsu leaned weakly against the tree trunk, forcing a smile that looked more like a grimace:
"Mission accomplished, armory destroyed."
"And..." Nishikawa Toru glanced at the unconscious Fugaku, lowering his voice so that only Jiraiya could hear him:
"Fugaku-senpai's eyes have evolved."
Jiraiya's body jolted violently.
He looked at Fugaku's tightly closed eyes, and his expression instantly became incredibly complex.
As a disciple of the third generation, he knew all too well what the word "evolution" meant.
That was the power of Madara Uchiha, a power powerful enough to overturn the balance of the ninja world and drive the Konoha leadership mad with fear.
Moreover, it was launched in full view of everyone in Amegakure.
This means that the secret cannot be kept hidden at all.
"I see."
Jiraiya took a deep breath, handed Fugaku over to the medical team, and then took off his coat and covered the three of them.
"Go back to camp for treatment first. I'll take care of the rest."
Jiraiya turned around and looked in the direction of Amegakure, a rare hint of coldness appearing in his eyes.
"It seems that the war in the Land of Rain will become even more complicated because of these eyes."
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